The killer app has been around for years…
"But has never been realized. The Group PIM. What percentage of people really want write a weblog? A few percent of those on the Internet might be a couple hundred thousand. Usenet has shown most people don’t write things others want to read – its a sewer. Weblogs are an important service, but not a *broad* one. However, how many people need to organize their life, and their company? Multi-millions."
Right on. It’s still too cumbersome to share calendars and to-do lists on the Internet, while running an Exchange server is too much for a small company (or network of freelances) to manage. An Exchange ASP might do the trick for Outlook users (and Outlook Web Access provides a feature subset through the browser), but at least here in France I have yet to find one. I’m told Netstore is considering a continental presence.
09/27/02 update: it’s my understanding that Netstore first attempt to sell its services in France didn’t work out (I can’t be more specific than that), and looking at their site, I don’t think they’re interested in SMEs and virtual teams.